The four-parter, to be shown next year, explores the fallout from a
series of shootings that take place in a single day in a fictional
English market town. It explores tragedy, grief, responsibility and redemption seen through
the eyes of a journalist returning to the small town of his childhood,
and those closest to the victims of the tragedy.

Southcliffe is written by Tony Grisoni (Red Riding), produced by
Derrin Schlesinger (Four Lions) for Warp Films, and will be the first UK
television project for Sean Durkin, director of the 2011 independent US
film Martha Marcy May Marlene.

"Southcliffe is a fictional market town inhabited by fictional
characters, but with similarities to many actual people and places in
Britain today," Grisoni said. "Invisible people, anonymous places. The
inexplicable chain of events at the dark heart of this four-part drama
shatters time and space for Southcliffe's inhabitants. Violence and
sudden bereavement confronts them with emotions they are unequipped to
understand. Rather than analyse or moralise about our characters'
actions, we share in them. Southcliffe is an anthem to ordinary people's
ability to reinvent themselves in the face of ultimate darkness."

Channel 4 head of drama Piers Wenger added: "Tony Grisoni's unique
ability to convey the darkness and subtleties of human behaviour is in
full evidence in these four brilliant scripts, and I'm delighted that
Warp Films and Tony have found a world class director like Sean Durkin
to bring them to life."

Southcliffe will start principle photography next month and be broadcast on Channel 4 in 2013.